The cyclo-cross community was reeling from the decision which came at the hands of the Austin City Parks and Recreation department, who stepped in early this morning to call a halt to the race after claiming that more than an inch of rain had soaked the course overnight and forced them to stop the event in order to protect the health of a grove of "heritage trees", some of which are more than 100 years old.

Yet observations by the national and local weather services put the rainfall at just one tenth of an inch, and it is difficult to not suspect there is more to the attempted cancellation than just trees and mud.

Austin Parks and Recreation director Sara Hensley told the media during a press conference that she has been getting emails and calls from residents who are upset with the city for allowing the race to be held. Residents are afraid the park and its ancient trees are being damaged beyond repair. A local tree preservation group was particularly outspoken in their objections. "People are calling for me to resign or be fired," Hensley said. "But we've also been getting messages of support. This is what happens when you live in a city where everyone wants to give their two cents, so we have to try to balance that."

I live about a mile away from a local CX course on a city park - the course gets really torn up in wet weather so is only used every other year. The course recovers over spring and summer. But then I'm in Colorado.

The Austin event organizers/city should have just moved the course in places where it ran over tree roots.

It seems to me that the onus should be on USA Cycling to make it perfectly clear as to what a cyclocross race entails when negotiating these things. If the health of these tress is so critical (and I'm not suggesting that it isn't), then I don't really see how delaying the race 24 hours is going make a substantial difference to the potential damage anyway.

If these are legitimate concerns being voiced by the Austin Heritage Tree Foundation, then I blame the race organizers for not having the foresight to anticipate such concerns.

If they were just hoping and/or praying for good weather all weekend, then they are probably involved in the wrong sport to begin with.

I can already see a disaster-in-the-making with future venues. I wonder if they'll learn anything from this debacle. The federation and race organizers need to step up and accept 100% of the blame on this one. But I'm also curious to know who the driving force was behind bringing nationals to Austin.

The whole thing just resonates with so much entitlement that I see permeating the cycling industry. So much of it exist within a bubble. Did they really expect all concerned parities to have some sort of intimate understanding of what cyclocross even is? Most people don't even know that it's a thing, yet alone an actual sport.

Now the locals are angry, the riders are angry, and nobody wins. Hurray.

I'm wondering if you were there yesterday, and just what the weather was like this morning.

From the images I saw, it appeared to be more than acceptable. It wasn't even raining, and the overall conditions looked quite good.

Will you be able to attend tomorrow?(I imagine that the crowd turnout will be pretty weak on a Monday)

The weather was never all that bad and was actually great today. We really didn't even get very much rain, maybe an inch or two over the weekend and none today.

For some inexplicable reason, it seems like they just didn't truly understand the kind of damage that could be done. It really hinges on the root systems for some trees in the park. Sounds like they're dropping mulch in certain spots and altering the course a bit for tomorrow.

I'm definitely going to try and make it down for the two big races tomorrow.

Bunch of bloody tree-huggers! Completely clueless. Photos of a huge Oak, how far do they think its root system speads, how deep & what % will be damaged?
Evolution has made plants resistant to such minor damage.
Typical stupid Watermelons, I'm amazed that they've not worked some "Climate Change" rubbish into their argument too.

OffTheBackAdam wrote:Bunch of bloody tree-huggers! Completely clueless. Photos of a huge Oak, how far do they think its root system speads, how deep & what % will be damaged?Evolution has made plants resistant to such minor damage.Typical stupid Watermelons, I'm amazed that they've not worked some "Climate Change" rubbish into their argument too.

Apparently the promoter got served by the locals. Apparently no one was willing to pay them off.

Jeremy Powers takes the win with a very impressive and dominant performance.

Jonathan Page in a very commanding 2nd.

Zach McDonald 3rd.

Cool course, good race.

Although I must say, USA Cycling did an ABYSMAL job at disseminating timely information about the race. With all the changes, delays, etc,. it was nearly impossible to figure out what was going on, and when, by relying on the "official" website or Twitter feed.